


She Ra vs ATLA Analysis

by StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese



Series: In Which I Ruin Childhoods [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Analysis, LGBTQ Themes, No beta we die like mne, Not a fic, POC representation, animorphs mention, rick riordan mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24721807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese/pseuds/StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese
Summary: An analysis of worldbuilding vs. representation in She-Ra and Avatar: the Last Airbender.
Series: In Which I Ruin Childhoods [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799770
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	She Ra vs ATLA Analysis

I wrote an essay that nobody will read, because why the hell not.

I figured it out- why the world in ATLA overall feels more real than She-Ra’s, but She-Ra’s world feels more real in different, smaller ways. 

Fair warning: I wrote this at one in the morning in the Notes app before falling asleep, then just copied and pasted it into Tumblr before copy/pasting it again into AO3, so there might be typos and/or me just stating the obvious over and over instead of actually analyzing the content.

(Tl:dr at bottom)

1\. Side characters and their arcs

In ATLA, we don’t just focus on the main characters all the time. Random people get to react to the world around them too- Ying (the pregnant woman from the Serpent’s Pass), Jin (the girl that Zuko goes on a date with), Song, King Kuei, the guards Sokka interacts with at the prison, the Cabbage Man, and even Appa. The world feels fleshed out and real because of the way the characters interact with each other… and that’s the key. All of the characters (but especially Zuko) interact with other people in the world, beyond shouting “Hey you!” at them. The Kyoshi warriors, Jeong-Jeong, Pakku, and others are given dimensions beyond “girls”, “old man”, and “sexist douche”. In fact, I might argue that the only one-dimensional character is really Ozai, but that’s fine because he is the main villain, they were all seriously considering killing him, and this is still kid’s TV. They usually have multiple goals beyond the main characters (Suki wants to protect her warriors, Jeong-Jeong wants all firebending to die out, Pakku even gets a mini-arc in the North Pole episodes), and they fight to accomplish those goals.

2\. The views of said side characters

Those side characters don’t randomly change their views to line up with the audience’s. Again, they act the way real people would with the information that they have. For example, in Zuko Alone, even after Zuko saves Lee (Li?), the townspeople still run him out based on prejudice. We as an audience who 1) have probably seen children’s TV before, 2) know Zuko is beginning his redemption arc, and 3) might remember when Zuko actually kept his world and did not attack the South Pole all the way back in s1, know that Zuko would not hurt these people. But they don’t. They see a firebender, and even though he saved a child, they are still afraid, and chose to react based on that fear (God, I sound like that teacher from Donnie Darko). The audience can’t really blame them, though, because they're kind of right. If it were Zhao instead of Zuko, or Iroh pre-Lu-Ten’s death , or (yikes) Azula, there would have been absolutely zero guarantee for their safety. They were lucky it was Zuko, and (in my opinion) although they didn’t react in a way that was fair to Zuko, they also reacted in a way that makes sense, given that probably every other firebender they’ve encountered is either a maniac or a soldier who has no choice. 

3\. Working hard to achieve a goal

The characters are almost never given the easy way out. Zuko is a walking talking example of this (and I could go into a whole other rant about Catra's redemption vs. Zuko's, but that would be a whole other post), but the others are, too. Aang has to learn not to run away when the urge strikes him, he has to grieve and to accept the deaths of his people, and he has to become a fully-realized Avatar. Sokka has to deal with the fact that he is the only nonbender on the team. Toph has to deal with her parents, and how she’s not the person they think she is, and the pain that comes with that. Katara has to deal with sexism and teaching herself how to use her powers, all the while teaching another person. They all have their insecurities, and they actively fight to move past them, even when they fail. One of my favorite Katara scenes is when she is fighting Pakku- and loses. In another show, such as She-Ra, Katara would have won, but in this case, it makes complete sense. There is no reason for Katara to be able to beat this guy. He’a a master, and she’s only just figured out her whip. So she loses. Obviously. 

The one time the characters are given the easy way out would be with Aang (sorry, buddy) and the fight with Ozai. A lot of people complain that energy-bending came completely out of nowhere, and I agree. From the perspective of a rather skeptical person, I think it should have been foreshadowed at least a little bit. Maybe it could have been described as a long-lost bending art, or given an offhand mention in the flashbacks with the monks (they seem like they’d know about that kind of thing). So yes, Aang is given the easy way out.

One caveat: I do like that Aang was able to stay true to his morals. From a storytelling perspective, I find that last episode frustrating, but from a human perspective, and someone who knows that Aang is a 12 year old pacifist desperate to keep his people’s traditions alive… the fact that he didn’t kill Ozai is satisfying. I’m just saying, in terms of storytelling and foreshadowing, it’s a little annoying.

Also, the way Aang agonized over this, and the way he seemed to be prepared to kill Ozai in the last fight scene, does suggest that it was hard for him. I’m not saying it wasn’t. I’m just saying that it felt a little too bait-and-switch for my tastes.

One kids series that does force characters to make hard choices and follow through with them is Animorphs by K.A. Applegate. One thing I loved about that series was the David trilogy, in which the main characters invite a new person into their group, only to discover that (spoilers) he is a psychopath and they have to get rid of him somehow. I spent those three books waiting for something to happen to him. Maybe the villain would kill him, or an anvil would drop on his head. But no. Eventually, the characters come up with a plan, and they execute it. What do they end up doing to him? Well, they turn him into a rat and leave him on a deserted island, far away from all of human civilization, effectively traumatizing everyone involved. Bam. The characters are forced to come up with a plan, and although that is a horrible thing to do to another human being, both the kids and the audience know that they have no choice. By that point, David is out of control. He was willing to betray them, to hurt them, and even to kill them. If they had more time, would they have been able to come up with a better plan? Sure, maybe. But aside from killing him, there was really no other way out. I feel like that was a theme in that series, which was really dark for kids’ books, by the way: for the good of humanity, the Animorphs, one by one, must sell their souls. From a storytelling perspective, I loved it. Then again, from an adult’s perspective, yikes.

*****

I’m sure that there are other worldbuilding points that I could add on, but those are my top three. I’m not even going to try to touch the plots, the mess that is shipping, or really anything else, because I think those are cases of ‘to each their own’. I will say that one thing She-Ra excels at is the representation. To be honest, the only reason I started watching it was because I knew Catradora would be made canon. Although the world of Avatar might feel more fleshed out in terms of character depth and motivations, the world of She-Ra feels more fleshed out in terms of sexualities and gender, which I think is fantastic. While some if it might have to do with the time the respective shows were made (like how Korrasami was only able to hold hands and Catradora got to kiss onscreen), at the end of the day, Avatar has characters that feel more real, but She-Ra has characters that kids might be able to see themselves in (Double Trouble, Catradora, the many other gay couples, Entrapta). Both are important. Both are really good in their own ways. Both are worth a watch (especially if you’re bored in quarantine- they’re both on Netflix).

Off topic: if you’re looking for something that has character depth, a great plot, and amazing representation, look no further than Rick Riordan’s many book serieses (?), which have main characters that are gay, lesbians, pan, bi, asexual, biracial, genderfluid, have ADHD and/or dyslexia, Muslim, black, Chinese, Latino, and probably a lot more that I’m missing. Although he does stumble sometimes, I think that it’s important that he’s trying to give kids a character that they can project onto. While most of the representation comes from the later books, the earlier ones, which feature main characters with ADHD and dyslexia (out of the three main characters in the first book, only one doesn’t have ADHD/dyslexia), are fantastic, and help remove the stigma around them, which is what that kind of rep is supposed to do, no? Thanks to creators like Noelle Stevenson and Rick Riordan, when straight cis kids meet someone who isn’t heterosexual, or is neurodivergent, or part of a different religion or race, their first thought isn’t Wait, wtf?, it’s THAT’S SO COOL YOU’RE JUST LIKE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER FROM THIS SHOW/BOOK! And, I mean, that’s progress, right?

This sort of went off the rails towards the end, so, sorry about that. I have too much time on my hands thanks to quarantine. 

Anyway, tl;dr: Character depth and plot might make a better TV show, but representation is important, too. The way characters interact with the world around them makes a world feel more real, but the joy of seeing a character just like you onscreen or on a page can be just as amazing.

**Author's Note:**

> hey, if anyone's reading this, let me know what you think. agree? disagree? i'd love to know.


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